Health Care Quality

Hawaii is the most recent addition to the United States, becoming a state on Aug. 21, 1959. Two things seem to stand out about this state comprised of eight islands: It’s a tourism paradise, and it was attacked by the Japanese in 1941.

[SEE: What Hawaii Is Doing to Combat the Coronavirus]

The islands’ history dates back to around 1,500 years ago when Polynesians sailed from the Marquesas Islands. Around 1000 A.D., Tahitians arrived, along with their belief in God and the practice of the kapu system, a hierarchical social order similar to caste in Hindu culture.

In 1778, British Capt. James Cook became the first documented westerner to land on Hawaii. Cook named the chain the “Sandwich Islands” in honor of John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich, one of his voyage's patrons.

In 1791, a royal dynasty was established under King Kamehameha the Great. Between Cook’s arrival and 1820, more than half of the Hawaiian population died from wars, disease or famine.

In 1898, Hawaii became a U.S. territory after the Americans staged a coup and replaced Queen Liliuokalani with a committee representing the Republic of Hawaii.

Hawaii’s economic pillar is tourism, which generates most jobs on the state’s islands. Among the islands, the state boasts ocean, beaches, volcanoes and other mountains. The islands’ daytime temperatures average 85 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and 78 F in the winter.

On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan conducted a military air strike on Pearl Harbor, drawing the U.S. into World War II. About 2,400 Americans died in the attack, and the U.S. Navy lost 12 ships that sank or were beached, and at least 160 aircraft.

Honolulu-born Barack Obama was elected as the 44th president of the U.S. in 2008 and 2012.

Alaska was inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous groups, including the Aleuts, Northern Eskimos, Southern Eskimos, Interior Indians and Southeast Coastal Indians, before European colonization in the 1700s. These and other native peoples faced severe smallpox outbreaks from the late 18th through the mid-19th centuries, which destroyed some and ruined other communities.

[SEE: What Alaska Is Doing to Combat the Coronavirus]

Secretary of State William Seward purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million, or about 2 cents an acre. Critics of the purchase, often referred to as "Seward's Folly," quickly changed their minds when gold was discovered in the Yukon and settlers flocked to the land in the 1890s. The Last Frontier became the 49th state in 1959.

Oil was discovered at Prudhoe Bay in 1968 and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline was completed in 1977, and the resource has since contributed to about 90% of the state's economy.

Alaska is home to some of the most stunning geography in the U.S., boasting 17 of the nation's 20 highest peaks, as well as the Tongass National Forest, which is the largest in the country. The state contains more untouched land than anywhere else in the U.S.

While Alaska is the largest state by area, it's among the smallest in population – only about 740,000 people call the state home. Alaska boasts the lowest population density in the nation, with just 1.3 people per square mile.

Anchorage is the state’s largest city, followed by Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Fairbanks, Kenai Peninsula Borough and the capital, Juneau. With just under 300,000 people, Anchorage accounts for about 40% of the state's population.

Utah was dubbed "Deseret" by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who settled this remote western realm in the mid-1800s, fleeing from religious discrimination in the East.

[SEE: What Utah Is Doing to Combat the Coronavirus]

With the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, President James Polk formed a Mormon Battalion. In a march from Kansas to San Diego from 1846 to 1847, they forged a wagon route across the deep Southwest.

They moved to Mexico until the war’s end, returning in 1848 to the place they hoped to make the state of Deseret, a name drawing on the symbol of community found in a honey beehive in the Book of Mormon. By 1850, with a population of more than 11,000, church leaders chose members to head their settlements, and through 1900, the Mormons founded 500 communities in Utah and neighboring states.

On May 10, 1869, the first transcontinental railroad was established at Promontory Summit in the Utah territory, where the Union and Central Pacific Railroads met. As gold and silver were discovered in the mountains, Congress named the territory Utah after local Native Americans. Utah was cut in half to form Nevada; Colorado won a slice, and Wyoming won some land. Utah became the 45th state in 1896.

Utah’s mountains, high plateaus and deserts – containing the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere, at the state capital of Salt Lake City – are bordered by Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona at right angles. The “Four Corners” are the only such arrangement in the U.S.

The state is known for its skiing, with the mountains near Salt Lake City collecting an average of 500 inches of snow per year, as well as for the Sundance Film Festival, one of the world’s premiere independent film festivals, staged each January in Park City.

The Grand Canyon State was the last of the 48 contiguous states to join the union, admitted in 1912. Arizona was carved from the western side of New Mexico during the Civil War in 1863, becoming a territory then and until statehood.

[SEE: What Arizona Is Doing to Combat the Coronavirus]

Mining became a major industry after the Gadsden Purchase of 1853, which granted U.S. possession of southern Arizona, and remained a strong contributor to the region’s economy through the 1950s. The arrival of railroads in the 1880s only heightened the copper boom, and thousands of people flocked to the Wild West of Arizona's mining towns.

During World War II, Arizona served as a site for German prisoner of war camps and Japanese-American internment camps. Many Native Americans from Arizona fought during the war, and advocated for their civil rights upon returning home. Today, about a quarter of the state is made up of Native American reservations, including the Navajo Nation Reservation.

Following the war, the increasingly widespread use of air conditioning resulted in massive population and business growth in the state, including in the state capital, Phoenix. Today, it is the only state capital with more than 1 million people.

Arizona is the sixth largest state physically and is perhaps best known for its weather and geography. Southern Arizona features a hot desert climate, while northern Arizona is full of forests, mountain ranges and canyons. There are several national parks, monuments and forests in the state, including the Grand Canyon.

Arizona is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. The Four Corners is the only place in the U.S. where four states meet. Arizona also shares its border with Mexico, California and Nevada.

Colorado is the eighth-largest state in terms of landmass. While its geographic diversity and natural resources have been an economic boon as well as a draw for tourism, the state's government has made efforts to diversify the economy over the past decades. Its admission as the 38th state, in 1876, the same year as the centennial of the Declaration of Independence, earned its nickname the Centennial State.

[SEE: What Colorado Is Doing to Combat the Coronavirus]

Colorado is home to some of the country's tallest mountains, and has the highest mean elevation of any U.S. state. Whether tourists come to the state as skiers flocking to Aspen and Vail, outdoor enthusiasts traveling through the Rocky Mountains or the Great Plains or fans of the rapidly developing pot tourism industry, the state's investments have paid off in the form of billions of tourism dollars per year.

Colorado and Washington were the first states to legalize marijuana. The industry generated more than $387 million in tax revenue in 2020, according to the state's Department of Revenue. Historically, the state has been rich in agriculture, livestock and mineral extraction. In addition to tourism, the state's economy is bolstered by a developing technology scene and a presence from the military, including the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Colorado is bordered by Wyoming, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Utah. The state's Southwest corner is known as one of the "Four Corners" and is the point where Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet.

California, the most populous state in the nation, is home to Hollywood's stars, Silicon Valley's technology, Napa Valley's wines and ancient Redwood and Sequoia forests. The Golden State also is one of the country's wealthiest and most socially and politically influential.

[SEE: What California Is Doing to Combat the Coronavirus]

Mexico ceded California to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican-American War, and it was officially annexed as a free, non-slave state in the Compromise of 1850.

During the California Gold Rush from 1848 to 1858, about 300,000 people flocked to the Western state and its mines. California's shipping, agriculture, construction and transportation industries boomed as the state became a land of economic opportunity for settlers.

While the Gold Rush resulted in unprecedented population and economic growth – it remains the largest mass migration in U.S. history – it also forced out Native Americans and foreigners once gold became harder to find. After the Gold Rush ended, businesses that grew to serve miners remained behind, contributing to California's expansive economy.

California’s high-income earners, from film and television celebrities in Los Angeles to tech giants in Silicon Valley, are heavily taxed in the state, which hosts the largest entertainment and fashion industries in the country.

However, other industries bring in more money: Aside from real estate, the computer and electronic products manufacturing industry contribute the most to the state's economy.

California has some of the country's best universities, including Stanford, University of Southern California, California Institute of Technology and the University of California campuses at Berkeley and Los Angeles.

California also is home to some of the nation's most beautiful landscapes. Yosemite National Park, draws in millions of people each year to revel in the park’s towering waterfalls, massive rock formations and sprawling forests, including a stand of ancient great Sequoias.

Home to the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland is known for its blue crabs and the city of Baltimore, a major historic trading port, baseball power and birthplace of the national anthem. Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” as he watched the American flag wave above Fort McHenry on the harbor during the War of 1812, signaling Britain's defeat.

[SEE: What Maryland Is Doing to Combat the Coronavirus]

As one of the original 13 colonies, Maryland has always played a pivotal role in American history. Maryland was named a state in 1788 and was the seventh to ratify the U.S. Constitution. As a border state during the Civil War, it ultimately joined the Union, though it was divided in its support, even among family members.

Maryland remained a slave state for most of the war, forcing slaves like abolitionists Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass to flee. In 1862, the Old Line State held the bloodiest one-day battle in the nation’s history: the Battle of Antietam.

Today, Maryland continues to be integral to the nation’s progress. Adjacent to the nation’s capital, Maryland employs among the largest percentages of federal workers of any state and has more than 60 federal agencies.

Maryland is an aerospace and defense hot spot, holding the majority of the country’s top aerospace companies and defense contractors. It houses the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, along with defense contractors such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin.

Maryland also boasts a $57 billion military industry, which includes Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, one of the largest military medical centers in the nation.

Oregon’s history dates to the exploration of the Northwest. First, Spanish and British explorers came up the Pacific coast in the 17th and 18th centuries. Then, following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Oregon was mapped by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

[SEE: What Oregon Is Doing to Combat the Coronavirus]

In the 1830s, pioneers arrived via the Oregon Trail, with both American and British settlers arriving. Starting in 1836, about 12,000 emigrants made the 2,000-mile trek from Missouri to the Oregon Territory, the trail most heavily used in the westward expansion of the U.S. In 1846, the border between U.S. territory and the British realm that became part of Canada was set at the 49th parallel. And in 1859, Oregon was admitted to the union.

Historically, the Pacific Ocean coastal state's economy has been based on fishing, timber and inland agriculture. In modern times, it has been transitioning to service industries and manufacturing. Most significantly, the counties centered around Portland have attracted a growing high-technology industry.

Oregon is among the most trade-dependent states. The value of exports from Oregon to foreign countries has exceeded $18 billion a year. The state's leading commodities of greenhouse and nursery products, cattle and calves, milk, hay, grass seed and wheat generate more than $4 billion a year in revenue. The state also grows almost all the hazelnuts consumed in the U.S.

Oregon also has developed one of the finest wine-making regions in the U.S., the Willamette Valley – home of wineries known for Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Columbia River Gorge, which traverses the border with Washington to the north, has been designed a National Scenic Area, and Crater Lake, formed in the remains of an ancient volcano, is the deepest lake in the nation and ninth-deepest in the world at 1,943 feet.

Maine’s 35,380 square miles make it the largest of the six New England states. Eastport, Maine, is the easternmost city in the continental U.S.

[SEE: What Maine Is Doing to Combat the Coronavirus]

About 90% of the Pine Tree State is forested, the source for one of its leading industries – traditionally among the world's largest pulp-paper producers. Tourism has also become a mainstay of Maine’s economy. Its forests feature two major parks: Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, and Baxter State Park, where the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail spanning 14 states reaches its northern end at Mount Katahdin, the state’s highest, at 5,267 feet.

Although explorer John Cabot is believed to have seen the Maine coast in 1498, the first English settlements came more than a century later. English colonists led by George Popham established Fort St. George in Maine in 1607, the same year that Jamestown, Virginia, was founded. Popham’s death and a harsh climate forced the colonists to return to England – leaving Jamestown to be regarded as the first permanent European colony in North America.

Agamenticus was the first city to be chartered in Maine in 1641. When the Massachusetts Bay Colony annexed southwestern Maine in 1652, governing the district until its statehood, it was reincorporated as York.

Maine became the 23rd state in 1820, as part of the Missouri Compromise, which allowed Missouri to enter the union as a slave state and Maine as a free state.

The anti-slavery abolitionist movement found passionate allies in Maine, and in 1850, when Harriet Beecher Stowe’s husband accepted a teaching post at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, she settled in to write "Uncle Tom's Cabin," considered the icon of anti-slavery literature. The Harriet Beecher Stowe House still stands in Brunswick.

Wisconsin, admitted to the union in 1848 as the 30th state, traces its history to French explorers arriving in the early 1600s. Samuel de Champlain, governor of what was then New France and now Canada, dispatched Etienne Brule and Jean Nicolet to determine whether a water route to the Pacific Ocean existed. There was none, but there was much fur to be traded. From 1650 to 1850, the region's economy was built around fur trading with Indian tribes.

[SEE: What Wisconsin Is Doing to Combat the Coronavirus]

The French and British went to war over rights to the fur trade, and when peace was declared in 1763, the British prevailed. As European immigrants poured into the state in the 19th century, many settled on farms, and some worked in lumbering and mining. The state earned its Badger State nickname from itinerant miners who burrowed into hills for shelter rather than building homes.

Old-line manufacturing has accounted for much of the state's industry over the past century. Among the 35 largest enterprises, nearly all are in manufacturing – with exporters such as Rockwell Automation and Generac Power Systems and others making industrial controls.

In addition, dairy is a major driver of Wisconsin's economy, generating more than $20 billion a year. Cheese-making, cranberries, snap beans and corn for silage are major agricultural products in the state.

The state also has a rich political history: At a meeting convened in Ripon, Wisconsin, to create a new political party committed to preventing the expansion of slavery, the Republican Party was established there in 1854.

Later in the 19th century, a "progressive" movement was born in Wisconsin, led by "Fighting Bob" La Follette. Progressive Republicans’ most significant legislation was enacted in 1911, instituting one of the nation's first programs of worker's compensation, regulating factory safety, encouraging worker cooperatives and starting a state income tax.